Highway to Hale

Here it comes. The inevitable BAD DAY. You can feel it rolling in. We’ve all had them. Things just aren’t going your way. Maybe you woke up late or your boss got on your case about something. Maybe you haven’t had your coffee yet or you aren’t feeling the creative juices flowing. It’s just not a good day.

I’ve got some more bad news for you.

Time to put the smiley face on because your brand doesn’t get a bad day. Your community doesn’t deserve to feel the pain of whatever stress you’re trying to handle. If you need to, go blow some steam on MySpace with a cryptic update, because your community isn’t there to pity you – they’re involved because of the value you bring. As marketers, we preach all day to add value, but consumers aren’t looking to add value in social media, they’re looking to take whatever value you’ll give them.

The current buzz around social media is that your brand should be human and it’s fine to make mistakes – screw that. It’s not fine to make mistakes*. Your brand should have personality, but your goal should always be a perfect user experience. It’s tough to achieve, but you sure as hell better be trying whether you’ve got a black cloud over your head or not. Nobody wins if you’re not always acting as a pleasant touchpoint for your brand.

Online communities exist 24/7 and you need to have your game face on during all interactions.

What do you do to avoid the impact of bad days? How do you turn that frown upside down when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed (extra points if you can use more cliches in one sentence)?

* Mistakes happen and you should always learn from them (acknowledge and make it right if possible)…but don’t brush them off as if there’s no problem.

Photo by "eschipul" via Flickr

If you’ve read Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents, you’re familiar with changing the game to succeed. Game changers are people that don’t just outperform their competition, they bring something to the table that transforms the industry or spawns a whole new industry. Maybe you’re like HubSpot, and have the ability to create an industry based on inbound marketing.

Before you can change your game, you need to know exactly what your game is. If you’re a sports fan, I have no doubt that you know Colin Cowherd. Cowherd always takes shots at people that think they can be sports radio personalities. It’s not negative, he just hits people with a dose of reality. The reality is that you don’t know his game. You might know a TON about sports or get everything right about your team, but that’s not Cowherd’s job. Like all radio personalities, Cowherd doesn’t get paid to be right about sports. He gets paid to entertain you. He admits that when he’s wrong, his ratings are noticeably higher.

To a listener, it sounds like Cowherd has a job because he knows sports (and there is a level of knowledge required…but that can be learned if you’re interested). You can’t compete with Colin Cowherd until you realize the arena in which you are competing – you’re not competing in sports, you’re competing in entertainment. If you take the entertainment too far, you’re not valuable to the sports community and if you take the sports too far, you’re too boring.

Another example in sports is Dwight Freeney. When asked about his game plan with an injured ankle in the Super Bowl, Freeney told reporters that he planned to find the ball and tackle the guy holding it. It sounds simple, but think about how many football players place emphasis on beating the guy in front of them. Freeney mentioned that he doesn’t get paid to beat his man or tire out an offensive lineman, he gets paid to put the man with the ball on the turf. He understands his game. He is past the obstacle directly in front of him when he starts (mentally), and he can focus on the true goal.

Do you recognize your game? Do you understand the reasoning behind your methods? It helps if you focus on problem-oriented problem solving. Yes, solutions are good, but if you think about solutions, you often miss the core of the problem. For example – if you’re living space is too dark, the solution might be to get more lights (one logical route). Consider this though: the problem is not that you don’t have enough lighting fixtures (lighting fixtures are ONE solution), the problem is lack of light. The problem opens new paths other than going out to buy new lighting fixtures. Have any ideas?

Golden Guy RSS by LuMaxArt

I’m a huge fan of creating a great RSS feed where you can find useful information at all times and read posts from a bunch of the super blogrockers out there. I use Google Reader for my RSS feed and I share articles pretty frequently for anybody that wants to check out my favorite posts.

I’ve noticed one huge problem with my RSS feed though.

There is no way to comment via my reader. I haven’t been commenting as much as I should, or want to, since I filled up my RSS feed with such excellent thinkers. It’s not that I don’t have thoughts about the posts, I’ve just got another list of posts staring me in the face that I can’t wait to read.

Not only are comments viewed as currency in the blogosphere at times, but comments drive conversation. The best bloggers are not looking merely to tell you what they think – they’re looking to build on ideas and participate in thought-provoking conversations.

Blogging is a two-way street. Make it a busy one.

Show your favorite bloggers that you appreciate their work by striking up conversation. Go beyond a simple agreement and a thank you. Use your comment to build on the blogger’s ideas, ask questions, and challenge points in a constructive or inquisitive format. You can form a valuable relationship simply through commenting and carrying your comments and conversations over to other platforms.

So here’s my social media resolution for 2010 – I’m going to make a point to do more commenting on blogs by Danny Brown, Jim Connolly, Arik Hanson, David Spinks, Rich DeMatteo, Lauren Fernandez, Valeria Maltoni, Stuart Foster, Leigh Durst, Scott Hepburn, Jackie Adkins, Matt Cheuvront, Amber Naslund, Ryan Stephens, B.L. Ochman, Samantha Ogborn, David Mullen, Mack Collier, Amy Mengel, Jason Falls, etc. (Seriously, the list goes on and on)

What are some of your favorite blogs and how can you improve your relationship through commenting?

In the spirit of full disclosure, you should know I’m writing this post because I lost a bet with Kyle Jameson aka @memyworld. He’s a Vikings fan and I’m a Bengals fan. Nevertheless, I stand behind everything I’ve got to say in this post. Kyle has a nice music blog called “Me. My World.”

Before you get the wrong idea – I don’t think your brand should set out in longboats conquering land masses while sipping mead from the skulls of your enemies. On the other hand, I’m not totally against you hiring a guy named Björn Ironside to manage your brand identity.

We’re talking about the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings. You know, the team of burly guys wearing purple and being led by your grandpa at Quaterback. All kidding aside, the Vikings have built one of the most intelligent and passionate fan bases in all of sports. You might argue that it’s easy to build a fan base for the 2nd most successful NFL franchise of all-time, but every year since the merger in 1970 has ended in disappointment.

So, how do you keep a fan base happy, involved, and satisfied when your team fails to meet high expectations?

They may not always be the greatest football team, but the Minnesota Vikings are made up of excellent personas and intriguing stories.

Like me, you might not remember much about the 1998 season. But bring it up to a Vikings fan and they’ll cringe. Gary Anderson, who was about 40 at the time, didn’t miss a field goal all regular season. It was probably the player story of the year. The Vikings were favored to go to the Superbowl…until Anderson missed his first and only field goal of the year in the NFC championship game on the last play of regulation. The Vikings lost in overtime. The fans took on the mantra that they would have won if not for that one field goal. Next year would be their year…but it wasn’t.

If you are a sports fan at all, you know and fear The Mullet and you can’t help but stare in awe at The Williams Wall. The Vikings are characters and the fans love it. Over the past few years, the Vikings have built the persona of A.P. as the hardest hitting back in the league and this year saw the arrival of the missing piece of the puzzle – Old Man Gunslinger Favre.

There is no doubt that Vikings fans will be disappointed with anything less than a Superbowl victory, but nobody will walk away from this season saying the management didn’t try. The Vikings’ management finds a way to give the fans what they want. From the outside, fans can see that they manage like they want to win.

So, why should your brand be more like the Vikings? Because they build characters with fascinating stories and they give their consumers what they need to maintain a positive relationship. The team doesn’t need to win for fans to keep coming back for more.

Image by "roygullem" on Flickr

If you’re a fan of sports (specifically College Football), you’ve heard of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Odds are you’ve even complained about the BCS once or twice. We won’t get into what a horrible system the BCS is, but if you think about it, the BCS has a lot in common with social media.

1.) Nobody likes the BCS…but the BCS – “Nobody” is a little extreme, but do you know anybody that has argued to keep the BCS around in the last few years? They’re not on the popular side unless they are sitting in an office with the BCS officials. Similarly, who are the largest advocates of social media? Those that make money as a product of social media.

If people on the inside are the only advocates, they are often blind to outside opposition. When logic and reality fly out the window, you’re drinking the Kool-Aid. Luckily, social media is gaining momentum in outer circles while BCS stock has been declining since it was established.

2.) The BCS “mission” isn’t exactly the goal of the BCS – If you ask a BCS official what the goal of the BCS is, they’ll tell you their goal is to find and match-up the two best teams in college football. If you ask an advocate of social media what the benefit of getting involved is, they’ll tell you about building relationships and reaching consumers where they spend their time. What’s the reality of both? The goal is to make money.

The BCS doesn’t necessarily win if the two best teams play in the championship, and businesses don’t necessarily win if they talk personally to consumers. The odds that both will be successful increase if they achieve their stated goal, but neither can exist if they don’t establish the underlying need of profitability. The rest doesn’t really matter.

3.) The big boys always have the edge in the BCS – In theory, the BCS puts all teams on a level playing field and the best teams will compete in the championship game each year. You see where this is going? One of the largest selling points of social media is that it puts small businesses on the same level as big corporations. Don’t be fooled though – the power conferences always have the upper-hand in the BCS and large corporations are still the ones that will push social media forward and make the largest splash when they get it right.

In the case of the perfect storm, small conference teams can impact the BCS heavily and the same goes for small businesses in social media. If they big boys aren’t making the news, an excellently planned and executed social media campaign will get noticed and hit the big time.

What do you think? Maybe the BCS and Social Media are crossing paths while heading different directions.

Here’s a bonus comparison – If the more established communications fields (marketing, PR, advertising) are the BCS conferences, social media is still the mid-major looking for the chance to get into the big game and prove itself against the heavy competition.

This post comes as a response to a recent article called “Why Resumes Are Lame” by Ryan Stephens. Ryan makes the argument that resumes are a waste of time, especially in certain fields including PR, marketing, social media, and advertising. David Spinks also wrote a post on “3 Reasons Why Resumes SHOULD Be Irrelevant” awhile back.

Here’s an important first note: Don’t throw away your resume. In fact, make your resume awesome with tangible results, relevant job experience, and a few personal interests. While you’re at it, see if you can present that information in a creatively designed manner. The chance you will get any job without a resume is pretty close to 0.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, forget what you’ve been told about a resume. There are only so many ways black ink on a white piece of paper can really speak to the validity of your skill and stick in a hiring manager’s mind.

All I’m trying to add to the discussion is that young people should be using all of the tools at their disposal to get creative and stand in the face of a bad economy to get that dream job they’ve been preparing for. Even the simple things help you stand out. Write a blog. It shows your ability to write coherently and present important ideas in your industry.

Will a blog replace your resume? Absolutely not. But it will create a conversation and build your personal brand.

Consider how designers apply for a job: They often drop off a well-designed promo/teaser piece for their artwork. Then, they follow up with examples of their previous artwork (portfoli0) and support their abilities in text by presenting a creatively designed resume. Why wouldn’t you do something similar for a job in your field? No, it’s not the norm. But unexpected creativity focuses eyeballs. If nobody sees you, nobody can hire you.

For example: You’ve built your personal brand in social media, so run a campaign for your brand to get hired. Call on your community and use the tools and theories you’ve learned, practiced, and discovered to promote yourself.

It all comes back to the age old Journalism saying – Show. Don’t tell.

Allow your creativity and the available tools to open doors. So what are you going to use as your doorstop? A flimsy piece or paper with twisted words, or your confident skills filled with substance and experience?

*for further examples, Ryan Stephens added these two examples to his blog. They are great uses of available tools to build a campaign for an individual to get hired. There’s also one example I added that shows how people are marketing themselves in other industries as well

• Here’s one.
• Here’s another.
• It’s not just a social media thing.

I wrote this on Posterous after returning home from a tweetup in Sioux Falls.

I grew up in Omaha. I spent four years at school in Sioux Falls. The Internet and group functions have allowed me to socially network heavily with individuals in Minneapolis.

When I send a resume to an Omaha company, a return email systematically lets me know that the company is not currently looking for entry-level employees.

In Sioux Falls, members of a close-knit professional community (from CEOs to Account Executives) will sit down for lunch or coffee and discuss possibilities in the area and speak candidly about employment opportunities as they see fit. Personal introductions are often the chosen method for passing along names, information, and recommendations.

Is the difference simply due to size? I don’t think so.

When I send a resume out in Minneapolis, the recipient indicates they have read the email and at least glanced at the attached document. If they are unable to help through employment, they offer to forward the information to colleagues and keep an ear open for possible opportunities. I’ve run into very few companies in Minneapolis that simply turn a cold shoulder without staying in contact and offering assistance.

How does information flow in your community? Like Omaha: the ‘Black Hole’ model [information that goes in never gets out]? Like Sioux Falls: the ‘Cheers’ model [where everybody knows your name]? Or like Minneapolis: the ‘Collaborative Potential’ model [our community can benefit from solid work and solid workers]? Maybe something completely different.

After driving 200 miles to meet with some great people in Sioux Falls, I began thinking about a post concerning the physical relation to one’s community. I would ask how far is too far to travel for a good community? And what do you do when you move out of a stellar community?

There is something more important than the geographic relation you have to your community. When I ask how far you will go for your community, I mean what will you do to show your community that you are one of them?

Scribnia community manager, David Spinks, does a great job of letting the community know that he belongs with them. He is every bit as likely to be nominated as Blogger of the Week as he is to choose the award. Furthermore, David makes it easy for bloggers to join the community by creating the skeleton structure of their page that they can fill in and claim when they choose to do so.

So, what can you do to show your community that you are a valuable component of the group? How will you show your community members that you belong with them and that you are willing to improve the community? It is commonplace to say go the extra mile for clients/communities/friends/coworkers.

Well I say – Go the extra 200 miles.

According to some recent statistics (eMarketer.com/Deloitte), 74% of US Employees agree (50%) or strongly agree (24%) that social media usage CAN damage a company’s reputation. I do not know why anybody would disagree, but welcome to the future of business. Welcome to the age of transparency and accountability.

Employees are accountable for what they say and companies are accountable for the ways in which they treat employees.

Maybe I’m living in a dream world, but if social media can damage a company’s reputation by sharing truth from the inside, it can also promote the company positively. Are there any Google employees complaining about their work environment or their horrible boss? Not that I have seen. Social media has been great for companies that treat their employees, clients and colleagues like rock stars.

What is it that you are doing that you do not want your employees or clients to share? And then why are you doing it in the first place? There is no need to outlaw social media use in the workplace if you are able to hire trustworthy employees and you are able to treat your trustworthy employees well.

This all brings me back to my original thoughts about Facebook. Everybody says use your privacy settings and remove pictures that portray you negatively. I agree, use your privacy settings so there are no surprises about who has been checking you out. But, if the act you are participating in is questionable to the point that you do not want others to see it, you need to ask yourself why you are doing it at all.

Clients are smart. If they can’t find any of your employees on the internet, they’ll suspect something is up. There is no reason to hide anything if you are proud of what you are doing.

D[space][username][space] (no comma).

That’s what a DM looks like on Twitter. I’ve screwed it up, you’ve probably done it too. Is it a big deal? It might not have been big news last week, but I did notice Chris Brogan failing a DM and shooting his cell phone number to his 70,000+ followers. That’s all for now on that subject.

The big news this past week was the change in how Twitter users will experience @ replies. To be more accurate, it has to do with how approximately 3% of Twitter users will experience @ replies (according to the Twitter Blog). As I earn my Social Media MBA (look to @arikhanson and his blog for that reference), the change in replies makes it difficult to connect with important influencers, but what does it mean for brands and companies on Twitter?

It may have only been 3% of users capitalizing on the ability to creep in on the conversations of others, but those 3% were passionate about the subject and using Twitter intelligently. Evan Williams was forced to respond within hours of the change because the hashtag #fixreplies became the top trending topic on Twitter. I understand the rationale that the users, in general, might not want to see partial conversations of those they follow, but I disagree that the option should be removed. Rather than promote running away from partial conversations, the option should have been roled out the other way. Force people to see half-conversations and let them choose whether they want to jump in and follow the other side or simply ignore the few tweets pertaining to a specific superfluous topic.

The most powerful words in social media marketing are engage and empower. The option to see one side of the conversation promotes both engagement and empowerment. Take @mnChevy for example: a car lover and follower asks when Chevy’s newest addition will hit the streets. This car lover has a bunch of followers that aren’t yet aware of the mnChevy account, so they miss the tweet and Chevy misses out on the chance to engage and empower their target market. On the other side, mnChevy answers the question, replying to the car lover. Many of mnChevy’s followers are interested in the release of a new product, but rather than ask, they assume they will look it up online somewhere later…and forget about it. Those followers also miss the tweet about the release; another missed opportunity. Just because a user did not ask the question, you cannot assume they were not interested in the answer.

That would be an isolated case, but an important example. Whether you scale the example up or down, the idea does not promote community. How many networking events have you attended where you join a conversation in which you only know one side? You build your network by meeting the other side and gaining a contact. Your community expands – empowerment through engagement.

How can you remedy the situation as a brand on Twitter? Fairly easy actually. If you want to simultaneously reply to a follower and broadcast the message to all followers (whether they are following the subject of the reply or not), simply do not put the @ reply at the beginning of the tweet. Either put the name later in the tweet, or add a character (such as a period) before the @ reply and Twitter will not recognize the tweet as an @ reply. This way, all of your followers see your reply and have the opportunity to engage the subject of the reply and build a community around a common brand (your brand). Information reaches a larger audience, communities reach higher levels, everybody wins.

What do you think about the changes? Were you part of the 3% that noticed? Does your position on the topic change as you consider personal use of Twitter vs brand use? Do you run a corporate account that was impacted by the change?

Why is social media so scary for traditional marketers? Because social media acknowledges that consumers are getting smarter. Smarter consumers means that marketers have to get smarter. Not a comfortable thought for the people who are currently considered marketing pros.

It is no longer enough to get your product in the right place for the right price with the right promotion. Of course those things all help (a lot), but social media gives the ability to join the right conversation. Consumers have been doing their best to avoid marketing messages for quite some time now, but the goal of social media is to provide a forum in which consumers want to engage. It doesn’t take a leap of faith to agree that engaging consumers is more beneficial than shoving a message in the face of an unwilling listener.

Another scary aspect of social media is that it often includes a waiting game. Consumers do not want their lives (conversations) intruded upon, but they do welcome answers when they pose a question. Prior to even pitching a social media plan, you have to listen to, analyze, and track conversations about the product. After you’ve listened, you better become the expert, because you need to jump head first into the communities that discuss your products. By “jump head first” I do not mean START SELLING! I mean be a member of the community. Add value, answer questions, be transparent.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of social media for traditional marketers to grasp is the idea that (before engaging) they must ask whether they are contributing to the conversation or selling. Selling is going to lead to avoidance, contributing value will lead to engagement. Transparency is one of the keys here. People will talk about your brand (both positively and negatively) whether you are there to hear it and engage in it or not.

The difficulty that comes with engaging customers is what draws me to social media. It’s an art of sorts. If traditional marketing is a blacksmith (forcing metal into unnatural, yet strong, forms), then social media marketing is glass blowing (strategically forming glass into an organic form with intelligent persuasion). Like blown glass, no two social media plans are exactly the same.

Agree? Disagree? Like to add? Looking forward to your comments.